For Jackie Thompson, climbing out of homelessness is a state of mind.
Stranded in Eastern Kentucky after being ditched by a carnival group he was working for, he started walking toward Hazard, 13 miles away, to seek help.
“When I was walking, I was miserable and cold,” he said. “I was all alone in the dark.”
Then he came to a small town by the name of Happy.
“I saw Happy Dentistry and Happy Shoe Store and Happy Auto,” he said.
It was then Thompson had a revelation.
“From that point on, I told myself I could either be happy or I could be upset,” he said. “I’m just going to choose to be happy. Right after that, things started working out a little better.”
Before that, Thompson said his future was bleak.
“I pretty much gave up on everything and I didn’t really want to come back to E’town,” he said. “But when I came back to E’town, things started looking up. I just want to keep progressing.”
Thompson, who is 37, has been making strides lately to maintain sobriety and a steady job. Sober and off the streets, Thompson is employed by Metalsa where he is building a more grounded financial footing.
“I’m just lucky,” he said. “It’s been a long road getting here. In situations where I was supposed to die, I blossomed.”
Homeless since 2017 after his marriage failed, Thompson had been in and out of homeless services and jail after falling into a drug addiction.
“I really fell into addiction hard,” he said. “I was married. That did not go well, partly because of me. I didn’t want to grow up and by the time I realized it, it was too late.”
After his wife left, he was unemployed and unable to pay for the apartment they shared together, Thompson said.
“It’s a sad story, when you’re clinging on to stuff when you’re not realizing that you’re pretty much homeless, but you’re still in an apartment,” he said.
Once evicted from the apartment, Thompson relied on services from Warm Blessings Community Kitchen while he continued to use methamphetamine when he could get it.
“I went to Warm Blessings with the wrong intentions,” he said, adding he just wanted to take and continue using. “I’d go over there, get what I could, then leave. It sucks that you can become that way. I was pretty much just leaching off of everything to try to hang on to what I had.”
Thompson doesn’t try to hide the fact that his rap sheet in Hardin County is extensive, mostly for misdemeanor offenses such as disorderly conduct and criminal trespassing charges.
“If you look at the jail log, you’ll see me in there,” he said. “The misdemeanors were racking up and I wasn’t working. If you’re not working and you’re using drugs, you’re bound to run into the law. They’re going to get you for something.
“I meant well, but you can only mean well for so long without the means,” he added. “And I definitely didn’t have the means.”
Using since he was 13, Thompson said it was the only life he really knew.
“Most people stop experimenting (with drugs) and drinking hard in their early college years,” he said. “I did a lot of jail time. I guess I felt like I was missing something. When I got out, I didn’t realize that’s not the way to go.”
Then in January 2018 came a felony possession charge that would keep him in the system for some time. Even when he was released, he would find himself back in jail for failures to appear or parole violations.
“I became homeless because I would choose drugs over work,” he said. “There were times when I tried to get it together … and then something would happen and I would fall.”
In September of 2019, he was sent to rehab as a condition of his sentence. He was released in January and completed rehab in July.
“As soon as I got done, I got a job and I’ve been working ever since,” he said. “For a long time, I was content with less. Now I feel like I can do more.”
Eric Fraley, a quality coordinator at Metalsa and Thompson’s direct supervisor, said Thompson’s attitude is reflected in his work.
“He does a great job,” Fraley said. “He really jumped in to what we do. He’s done everything I asked him to do. He’s learned several different job functions already and he’s eager to learn more. He’s really eager for overtime.”
Fraley said he was unaware of Thompson’s past until his interview with The News-Enterprise and was surprised to learn of it.
“I never would have thought a thing about it,” he said. “He’s ready to work every day. He’s reliable. He has a great attitude about work.
“We’ve had a few conversations not outside of work, but beyond work, and I think he has a pretty good outlook on things,” he added.
Fraley is hopeful Thompson will continue building on his newfound success with the company.
“I think he has all the opportunity ahead of him, if he wants it, at Metalsa,” he said. “There’s a lot of opportunity there right now since there’s so much business and we’re so busy. It really is hard to get staffed up the way we need. It’s pretty refreshing as a supervisor to have an employee ready to do whatever you need and wants to work as much as he can.”
Thompson said he also is eager to put his past behind him so he is known for something other than being a frequent flyer at the jail.
“I like when people look at me, they don’t look at me like, ‘That’s the guy that’s been in the paper,’ ” he said. “Eventually, they’ll look at me like the guy who has the Metalsa uniform. They don’t have to worry about locking their door or being scared to be around me. I never wanted to be that person.”
Being homeless was a situation Thompson never dreamed he would be in.
“Homelessness can happen to anybody,” he said. “I never thought in a million years it would happen to me, but it was my fault.
“I was one of the lucky few to get out of it,” he added. “Sleeping under bridges and sleeping outside of stores, it starts with sleeping on couches. It’s a point I’m trying to run from now.”
While he still doesn’t have a permanent living situation, Thompson is continuing to stabilize his finances by saving and renting a room at America’s Best Value Inn in Elizabethtown.
“This is a minor setback,” he said, adding that a recent relationship breakup necessitated the move. “This was something that was only giving to me by churches and Room in the Inn and Warm Blessings when it was raining out. There were be so many nights that I had to look at (the Room in the Inn transportation) bus and they’d be like, ‘We’re full’ and I had to start walking to find somewhere to sleep.”
Thompson said he hopes his story speaks to others struggling with addiction to know there is hope.
“I just want people who are in addiction and who are homeless to realize that everybody’s story isn’t the same,” he said. “They can at least continue to try to be sober and employable. Don’t give up, because it can be so easy to give up when you are down that low.”
Gina Clear can be reached at 270-505-1418 or [email protected].
